The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain Chapter 35 Page 8

that way. I got to ask to go a-fishing; I got to ask to go in a-swimming — dern’d if I hain’t got to ask to do everything. Well, I’d got to talk so nice it wasn’t no comfort — I’d got to go up in the attic and rip out awhile, every day, to git a taste in my mouth, or I’d a died, Tom.

The widder wouldn’t let me smoke; she wouldn’t let me yell, she wouldn’t let me gape, nor stretch, nor scratch, before folks — ” [Then with a spasm of special irritation and injury] — ”And dad fetch it, she prayed all the time! I never see such a woman! I had to shove, Tom — I just had to. And besides, that school’s going to open, and I’d a had to go to it — well, I wouldn’t stand that, Tom. Looky-here, Tom, being